Hugo Palmer Saturday runners blog

HE STRIKES ME AS BEING THE WRONG PRIZE FOR THIS GROUP 2

We start Saturday with Hawksbill in the Royal Lodge. He’s a horse I absolutely adore, and he strikes me as being the wrong price for this Group Two prize. Luther heads the betting, and we were visibly unlucky not to finish a whole lot closer to him at Haydock last time. I don’t know if we’d have got into a battle to win the race with him, but I feel strongly that if we’d got a clear run in time, we’d have finished second at least, and much closer than the distance behind that we did, and that was only 3 ¾ lengths.

I wouldn’t want the ground to get much softer, he’ll handle some cut, and hopefully Newmarket will miss the worst of the rain, so we’ll give it a go, as I say, at the odds, I think he can run a big race. We had a nice 2-y-o winner here on Thursday [The Waco Kid], and the horses are running well generally.

One Eye Jack makes his debut here, and while he’s very much a horse for next year and beyond, he’s by Starspangledbanner so should enjoy this soft ground. He certainly moves like he will handle the cut, he goes well at home and he’s a horse we like, but as I say he’ll be an even nicer 3-y-o.

Given it’s been such a miserable summer, it’s been really frustrating that this filly just hasn’t had the softer ground that she wants. She was a winner over this course and distance back in May, and as we were then unable to follow that up, we took the decision to just ease off her a little bit and wait for the Ayr Gold Cup, as the ground always tends to be softer there and typically this year it wasn't!

So our new plan is to come here, and while she seems in really good nick at home, it's never the easiest thing to hold a horse without running them. However she seems in really good order, we know she goes well here and she will certainly get her ground. 

We end the day at Chelmsford, with How Impressive, who unfortunately hasn’t quite lived up that name and has had a slightly disappointing summer, albeit his third place last time was much more promising. As a result of his previous runs, his handicap mark has edged back down towards a rating that he can be quite dangerous off.

Unfortunately we're drawn in stall 10 here and I suspect from there he will have his work cut out, as a low draw would have been much more favourable, but he does go well on the all-weather.